


inside a structure

by IsolatedPhenomenon



Series: Diamond Incognito [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Diamond Incognito AU, First Meetings, Gen, Pink Diamond Theory, Pre-Canon, Rebellion, Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond Theory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 21:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7949365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsolatedPhenomenon/pseuds/IsolatedPhenomenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I have a...” Pink Diamond pauses, choosing her next words with more care that Pearl has ever seen her take with anything. “...situation that I think you’re capable of handling with discretion.”</p><p> <br/>Pearl is asked to solve one of Pink Diamond's many problems - alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	inside a structure

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the Diamond Incognito AU (tumblr.com/tagged/diamond-incognito) that a friend and I came up with; the basic premise is that Pearl is Pink Diamond's servant, Rose is Pink Diamond, and Pearl has no idea.

“Pearl!”

Pink Diamond’s voice is laced with an urgency Pearl has rarely heard from her. Uneasiness clawing at her stomach, Pearl springs into action and leaves her place by the wall to hurry to the diamond’s side.

With a slight downward tilt of her head, Pearl lets the words “Yes, my Diamond?” roll off her tongue as they had countless other times before. She has uttered them so often, both on Earth and back on Homeworld, that they are no more than a reflex, an immediate response to her name. She looks up expectantly at her mistress from under her lashes.

Pink Diamond scrunches her face, hesitating, before looking sharply down at Pearl. After a quick glance around, she leans down to place her face directly in front of Pearl’s. Ever obedient, Pearl flicks her gaze away so as not to stare into her eyes. A sign of submission, she knows, and the action tastes sour in the back of her mouth and makes her slender fingers tighten imperceptibly where they are clasped in front of her. Her face remains schooled in the expectant expression she had learned to wear as a mask; after thousands of years in the service of her mistress, she finally thinks she has the perfect mixture of false enthusiasm and dedication.

“I have a...” Pink Diamond pauses, choosing her next words with more care that Pearl has ever seen her take with anything. “...situation that I think you’re capable of handling with discretion.”

Pearl glances back at her diamond and quickly away again. She can read between the lines: something has gone wrong with the colony, again, and Pink Diamond wants the mess cleaned up, again, before Blue Diamond can get wind of the issue and reprimand her, _again_. This same cycle had been running since they arrived on earth, and Pink Diamond never seems to learn.

Internalizing her sigh of resignation, Pearl responds, “I understand. Shall I alert the usual team?”

“No, no.” Pink Diamond’s answer takes Pearl by surprise, but not more so than her next order: “I want you, and you alone, to deal with this.”

Pearl is too stunned to reply for several moments as her brain whirls. She has never, in her relations with Pink Diamond, dealt with a “situation” that was more than spilled water on her own. She has never, in her _life_ , dealt with a “situation” on her own.

She wants to deal with a “situation” on her own.

Pearl starts and looks back at Pink Diamond, this time meeting her eyes for a bit longer. “Of course, my Diamond. What needs to be done?” she manages to get out without stuttering.

Pink Diamond stands up straight and orders, “Map first.”

Easily, Pearl projects a map of the headquarters and the surrounding land. She had been tasked with memorizing it the first week there, and she prided herself on doing so within the first day.

“No, I need it to be larger.” Pink Diamond waves her hands almost excitedly, and Pearl thinks she can see a grin chipping away at the aristocratic façade. What a game they play, the two of them, with Pearl acting always as the perfect Pearl and Pink Diamond acting always as the perfect Diamond. They should both be awarded for their hard work, Pearl thinks, and has to bite back a bitter laugh as she expands the map to include the forest on the outskirts of the area.

Pink Diamond raises her finger to an island in the middle of a river and mimes an X on the southern edge. Then, she seems to catch a mistake and instead motions to a point across the river, closer to the headquarters. She pauses again, finger still in the air, before blurting out in a hurry, “Right there. I can’t explain what needs to be done - I’m a bit trapped, you might say - but I need you to make your way to that spot, without anyone in the headquarters knowing you’ve left, and fix the situation.”

Staring up at the map, Pearl assesses the distance. She can make it there and back again before the sun rises, so long as “fixing the situation” takes no longer than a couple hours. The only tricky bit would be escaping headquarters unseen, and Pearl’s skin tingles a bit with the idea of a challenge.

“What’s even more important,” Pink Diamond continues, ”is that you never tell a single soul where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or who - _what_ you’ve seen.”

Pearl is used to hearing these words from her mistress; no matter how enthusiastic Pink Diamond initially was about starting her first colony, the gem never seemed to understand how to _run_ a colony. This had left Pearl with too many hushed messages to deliver - in person, so they weren’t recorded digitally - and too many exasperated words left unvoiced.

But she’s never been told to “fix” something by herself before. She’s been given orders, complex, secret orders, but this is something wonderful and new and _challenging_. She feels like holding it too tight will make it crack, so she doesn’t think too hard about the comforting weight of a challenge, and instead she leaves the room with a barely remembered response:

“Yes, my Diamond.”


End file.
